Final Report draft

1. Project Introduction

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The North Pacific Gyre is created by ocean currents connecting two smaller garbage patches: one near Japan and another between Hawaii and California. These currents form a large vortex that spans an area approximately twice the size of Texas, trapping debris within its rotation.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, part of this gyre, is not a solid island of trash but a massive area of polluted ocean. It is dominated by microplastics, with concentrations of up to 1.9 million pieces per square mile. Larger items, such as abandoned fishing nets, plastic containers, and buoys, are also present, with pollution stretching over 2,000 miles.

Marine debris has severe consequences for marine life. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for food, while birds feed plastic fragments to their chicks, causing injury or starvation. Marine mammals are at risk of becoming entangled in discarded fishing nets, often drowning in a process known as ghost fishing.

This debris also disrupts the marine food web. Microplastics and other trash block sunlight needed by plankton and algae, which are crucial to the ocean’s ecosystem. A decline in these organisms reduces food sources for other species, potentially impacting the entire food chain and threatening seafood availability for humans.

Plastics exacerbate these problems by releasing harmful chemicals, such as BPA, as they degrade. They also absorb pollutants like PCBs from seawater, introducing these toxins into the food chain when consumed by marine animals.

Methods of Microplastic Collections

Organizations like The Ocean Cleanup are actively working to remove waste from high-pollution areas such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Their efforts focus on innovative strategies to extract plastic debris and reduce the environmental impact of marine pollution.

To address the vast amounts of trash, multiple methods are employed, each tailored to target different types of debris. Hand picking is used for larger, visible items, such as fishing nets and containers. For microplastics and smaller debris, specialized tools are implemented.

The Neuston net, a fine mesh net traditionally used in oceanography, collects samples from the ocean’s surface. Its improved counterpart, the Manta net, allows for continuous-flow collection, increasing efficiency. Grab sampling involves collecting known volumes of surface water using glass containers, ensuring all microplastics within the sample are captured. For debris embedded in coastal sands, a PVC cylinder is utilized to extract sand samples for analysis and cleanup.

By combining these approaches, organizations are making strides in tackling marine pollution while contributing to scientific understanding of its composition and distribution.

Rationale to Study Plastic Collection in the Garbage Patch

Studying plastic collection in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is essential for driving progress in cleanup efforts and addressing marine pollution effectively. Quantifying the amount of plastic removed provides a clear measure of success, offering tangible evidence of progress toward cleanup goals. Analyzing this data also helps evaluate the effectiveness of different methods, identifying which strategies work best and why.

Furthermore, the information gathered plays a critical role in shaping global policies. Reliable data supports legislative efforts aimed at improving waste management and reducing plastic production. It also raises public awareness by highlighting the scale of the problem, inspiring greater support for environmental initiatives.

Finally, studying plastic collection fosters continuous improvement. Feedback from data collection enables the optimization of technologies and methodologies, making future cleanup operations more efficient and impactful. This research not only contributes to the current fight against marine pollution but also lays the groundwork for more sustainable solutions.

2. Research Question

3. Dataset Information

Table 1. Dataset information

Detail	Description
Data Source	NOAA NCEI Marine Microplastics
Retrieved from	https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/microplastics
Variables, wrangled	Year, Month, Day, Measurement, Unit, Density.Range, Density.Class, Latitude, Longitude
Date Range, wrangled	April 28, 1972 - February 21, 2014

Table 2. NOAA NCEI Microplastics data contributors

Count	Citation	DOI
1	Barrows et al.2018	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.062
3	Faure et al.2015	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4453-3
5	Law et al.2014	https://doi.org/10.1021/es4053076
6	Goldstein et al.2013	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080020
7	Courtene-Jones et al. 2020	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111092
8	Russell and Webster, 2021	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112210
9	Law et al.2010	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1192321
21	Tunnell et al. 2020	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110794
31	Kanhai et al. 2017	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.12.025
38	Alvarez-Zeferino et al. 2020	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104633
48	McEachern et al. 2019	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.07.068
57	Queiroz et al.2022	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156259
63	Suaria et al.2020	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105494
82	Pedrotti et al.2022	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155958
133	Eriksen et al.2014	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
138	de Haan et al.2019	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.01.053
142	Nash et al. 2023	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05926
145	Fulfer and Walsh, 2023	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36228-8
176	Eriksen et al.2018	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.09.058
177	Alfaro-Núñez et al.2021	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85939-3
183	de Haan et al.2022	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5df1
189	Joyce et al. 2022	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154036
223	Seemungal et al. 2022	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-021-00846-z
249	González-Hernández et al. 2020	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110757
291	Eriksen et al.2013	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.12.021
296	Egger et al.2022	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17742-7
300	Egger et al.2020	https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbb4f
311	Tanhua et al.2020	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243203
314	Rodrigues et al. 2020	https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2020.582217
414	Egger et al.2021	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.626026
427	Rodrigues et al. 2022	https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.998513
474	Setiti et al.2021	http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/mms.24899
569	Cruz-Salas et al. 2022	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2022.102423
600	Rose and Webber, 2019	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.01.319
2433	Kanhai et al. 2018	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.03.011
2581	Egger et al.2020	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64465-8
3239	Suaria et al.2016	https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37551

4. Exploratory Analysis

4.1 Global Data

This is data from entire globe.

4.2 NPSG Data

Distribution of Samples

Samples within the NPSG.

Distribution of Plastics Densities

Samples of different density classes.

Other variables: does the amount of plastic differ with time?

Plastics over Time

At first glance, there appears to be an upward trend.